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Sapp to Call Bucs’ Second-Round Pick

A year ago, Super Bowl XXXVII MVP Dexter Jackson was the one who led the world know that his former team had just drafted Nebraska linebacker Lavonte David. Jackson had the privilege of calling what appears to be a very successful pick; David looks like a star in the making after a huge rookie season.

Maybe Warren Sapp can do his former Super Bowl teammate one better. A brand new Hall-of-Famer calling the name of a future Canton-mate? It’s far-fetched – 77 NFL drafts and 267 Hall-of-Famers so far doesn’t make for good odds – but it could happen.

The possibility at least exists because this year it is Sapp, the 1999 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, who will take the Buccaneers’ card to the podium in the second round of the draft. The former Buc great will be in New York next Friday night for the second evening of the three-day draft along with 31 other former NFL stars, one for each team. Each former player will announce his former team’s second-round pick, unless that team does not have a selection in the round. Those players will instead announce their teams’ picks in the third round, which will also take place Friday night.

Sapp will be joined by two other members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s incoming Class of 2013 – Jonathan Ogden for the Ravens and Dave Robinson for the Packers. Three other Hall members are also part of the group: Deion Sanders for the Falcons, Larry Little for the Dolphins and Willie Brown for the Raiders.

Sapp is a former first-round pick of the Buccaneers, coming aboard in 1995 in the same incredible round that produced future Hall-of-Famer Derrick Brooks. This year, Sapp will be calling the 11th pick of the second round, #43 overall, barring a trade that moves the selection up or down (or, knowing, Mark Dominik, several trades).

As usual, the NFL draft will be conducted at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. That’s where the picks are announced, at least. Each team actually does all of its decision-making back at its own headquarters, keeping a phone line open with representatives seated at a table in front of the Hall’s stage. Those reps in New York City – this year, it’s Video Director Dave Levy and Head Equipment Manager James Sorenson – write the chosen names on index cards that are then handed up to the stage. In the first round, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will handle the announcements.

In the second round, that card will be put in the hands of the gregarious Warren Sapp. The Bucs hope it’s another case of one star passing the baton to a new franchise cornerstone.